Nice post! One point of contention, however, about Mendel switching to peas because the bishop didn't want mice having sex in the abbey:
We published the same claim in one of our own articles (https://press.asimov.com/articles/mouse-microscope) and got some pushback from people in a Reddit forum. We then looked into the claim, bought a bunch of books on Mendel, and this is what we discovered.
This claim first appeared in Hugo Iltis' biography of Gregor Mendel (this is source #15 or #16 in the paper you hyperlinked to), and is even repeated on Gregor Mendel's Wikipedia page. But unfortunately there is no evidence that the bishop forbade Mendel from working with mice, and it seems like this is just a yarn that has swelled and grown out of control. Daniel Fairbanks digs into the claim and debunks it in his book: https://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Mendel-His-Life-Legacy/dp/163388838X
I used to think Ronald Reagan was an amiable idiot for consulting an astrologer, but at 3:20 on election day in 2024, with the outcome in doubt, I have come to realize that there are far, far worse advisors to whisper in a president's ear.
Second the Psmiths - not only do both of them write amazing book reviews, they're an amazing couple with a zillion kids too.
They inspired me to start writing my own book reviews, which I'm planning to train GPT 5 or 6 on, after which I'll be able to point it any new book and tell it to review it like me, and be able to read 10-30 min condensations of any new book with all the things that would interest me extracted.
It's not a perfect book, but it makes a pretty persuasive case that the concept of civil war in Western political discourse is descended from the Roman experience, with their fascination and horror over civil wars informing Hobbes, Locke, and the rest. The trouble is that even though the most compelling reason to write the book is civil wars as a feature of the contemporary world, he never quite makes the connection. I wish some masterful essayist could connect his ideas with those of people in Congo or Vietnam or Afghanistan to reach some grand conclusion about what civil war really is. Anyway, the point is that like Mead, he is saying, "Hey, this isn't some universal feature of being human, it actually had an origin in history."
That's basically what he lays out. Amazingly, the Greeks had no concept of civil war. As I recall, the closest they had was something like "strife within the polis." The Roman rhetoric is like "civil wars, terrible, they turn brother against brother" and the Greeks are like, "Why the hell would a war make you kill your brother?"
Another movie twinning for you: Dances With Wolves (1990) moved faster than the far superior Black Robe (1991) for Native American-themed flick. The first is fine I guess, but the second is very good. Not sure bout pre-meditation.
And you of course know that Pirates of the Caribeean outpaced Master and Commander for period sailboat flick, even if the tone was quite different.
love this: "Citi Bikes pays users to move bikes from stations that have too many bikes to stations that have too few. Apparently you can make a buck by moving all the bikes from one station to another, and then moving them all back."
love learning the term "twin movies." always nice to put a name to a concept!
and thanks for the info about book-looking toilets!
In the late USSR (1970s) workers drunk industrial methanol ("because it's alcohol"), which often led to blindness and other nasty stuff. So the government decided that methanol should be only produced and transported with a special additive that made it smell and taste horribly. The inventive working class then devised an elaborate multi-step process to remove the additive.
Nice post! One point of contention, however, about Mendel switching to peas because the bishop didn't want mice having sex in the abbey:
We published the same claim in one of our own articles (https://press.asimov.com/articles/mouse-microscope) and got some pushback from people in a Reddit forum. We then looked into the claim, bought a bunch of books on Mendel, and this is what we discovered.
This claim first appeared in Hugo Iltis' biography of Gregor Mendel (this is source #15 or #16 in the paper you hyperlinked to), and is even repeated on Gregor Mendel's Wikipedia page. But unfortunately there is no evidence that the bishop forbade Mendel from working with mice, and it seems like this is just a yarn that has swelled and grown out of control. Daniel Fairbanks digs into the claim and debunks it in his book: https://www.amazon.com/Gregor-Mendel-His-Life-Legacy/dp/163388838X
Also reminds me of this recent Kurzgesagt video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgo7rm5Maqg&t=483s
Anyway, might be an interesting topic for a future article!
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. I've edited the post to direct to this comment.
How can you not love this newsletter when one of the conclusions under a graph is ‘just look at it’ ❤️😂. Might try that on some reports at work…
I used to think Ronald Reagan was an amiable idiot for consulting an astrologer, but at 3:20 on election day in 2024, with the outcome in doubt, I have come to realize that there are far, far worse advisors to whisper in a president's ear.
Second the Psmiths - not only do both of them write amazing book reviews, they're an amazing couple with a zillion kids too.
They inspired me to start writing my own book reviews, which I'm planning to train GPT 5 or 6 on, after which I'll be able to point it any new book and tell it to review it like me, and be able to read 10-30 min condensations of any new book with all the things that would interest me extracted.
Imagine what horrifying Wikipedia pages might be generated if you became a world-famous artist and scholars poured through your texts after you died.
"Pored"
Fixed, thanks!
Thanks! I was sitting here all morning waiting for the furnace cleaning guy. Now I feel like I didn't waste the entire morning.
In re wars: https://www.amazon.com/Civil-Wars-History-David-Armitage/dp/1441755411
It's not a perfect book, but it makes a pretty persuasive case that the concept of civil war in Western political discourse is descended from the Roman experience, with their fascination and horror over civil wars informing Hobbes, Locke, and the rest. The trouble is that even though the most compelling reason to write the book is civil wars as a feature of the contemporary world, he never quite makes the connection. I wish some masterful essayist could connect his ideas with those of people in Congo or Vietnam or Afghanistan to reach some grand conclusion about what civil war really is. Anyway, the point is that like Mead, he is saying, "Hey, this isn't some universal feature of being human, it actually had an origin in history."
Good point. Civil wars seem obvious at first, but they only make sense if you have a pretty specific idea of the state and what makes it legitimate.
That's basically what he lays out. Amazingly, the Greeks had no concept of civil war. As I recall, the closest they had was something like "strife within the polis." The Roman rhetoric is like "civil wars, terrible, they turn brother against brother" and the Greeks are like, "Why the hell would a war make you kill your brother?"
Another movie twinning for you: Dances With Wolves (1990) moved faster than the far superior Black Robe (1991) for Native American-themed flick. The first is fine I guess, but the second is very good. Not sure bout pre-meditation.
And you of course know that Pirates of the Caribeean outpaced Master and Commander for period sailboat flick, even if the tone was quite different.
It's wild that there are so many of these. I would love to know the proportion that are premeditated vs. products of the zeitgeist.
Darwin and Wallace, Newton and Leibniz, Biggie and Tupac. Good ideas are infectious, and humans do like to mess around.
dear adam,
thank you for this delightful piece!
love this: "Citi Bikes pays users to move bikes from stations that have too many bikes to stations that have too few. Apparently you can make a buck by moving all the bikes from one station to another, and then moving them all back."
love learning the term "twin movies." always nice to put a name to a concept!
and thanks for the info about book-looking toilets!
love
myq
Thanks for sharing my newsletter, Adam!
Re. the scatological Mozart - I read somewhere that it wasn't just Mozart, it was common among the general population then.
> During Prohibition...
In the late USSR (1970s) workers drunk industrial methanol ("because it's alcohol"), which often led to blindness and other nasty stuff. So the government decided that methanol should be only produced and transported with a special additive that made it smell and taste horribly. The inventive working class then devised an elaborate multi-step process to remove the additive.
Great post.
There's nothing wrong with astrology - it's just a persecuted science.
Statistics don't lie. Miterrand was the longest presidential term in France, so far and probably ever LOL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lizabeth_Teissier